Chapter 5, Part iii

Time didn't seem to pass in the Tulgey Wood. All the trees, roots, brambles and moss-ridden stones seemed to be equally ancient, all coated with a fine layer of undisturbed dust. They walked and walked, onward into the dark forest. Little sunlight reached the ground: only enough to allow them to see the path ahead that wound through the tangled, impenetrable trees. Sometimes it drifted lazily to the left, sometimes to the right, as if it couldn't decide which way it wanted to go. Everything was silent, except for the shuffling and crunching sounds of their feet on the ground. Nobody spoke.

Hector felt scared. Even the Bandersnatch hadn't inspired this sort of awestruck fear in him. The Tulgey Wood might have been beautiful, once, but now it was unattended and forgotten. He was just about to shout with pent-up frustration when suddenly the path split into half a dozen different directions. The group stopped in the center of the crossroads and peered into the various pathways, all of which extended into the mysterious darkness.

“Well,” Hector said, and his voice cracked. He cleared his sore throat. “Now what do we do?”

Everyone instinctively turned to Lilly, but she shook her head. “I don't know... I thought that once we entered the Tulgey Wood, it would be simple to find the Jabberwock. I wasn't expecting this. Burr, what do you know?”

He gently massaged his bandaged wrist, looking defensively at the others, but he said nothing.

“Perhaps we should split up?” Aric said. Lilly immediately shook her head.

“No, we must stay together. We do not know what lies in this Wood, and we must not get separated.”

“We'll probably never find the Jabberwock, then,” Aric warned. “We can all travel for ten minutes, say, and we'll all meet here again, then we can head off in the most probable direction. What do you two think?” This he said to Hector and Burr. Burr seemed distracted, lost in his own little world, so Hector spoke up.

“Well... I think I'd rather not split up. If we do, we might get lost. This place really creeps me out, and Lilly's right, we don't know what's lurking in here.”

Aric groaned with frustration. “Guys, don't be a bunch of cowards! It's just ten minutes! We'll regroup and then figure out where to go! It's the fastest way.”

“Speed means nothing if one of us gets killed.” Lilly folded her arms and glared at him.

“Come on!” Aric sputtered. He sighed. “Look. Time is of the essence. The Mome Raths are probably right on our tails. Figuratively speaking, of course, in the company of our Tovish Guardian and Guide--”

“I don't like that sarcasm in your voice,” Lilly said bitterly.

“--but if we don't get a move on they'll catch us and if they do, they'll do a lot worse to us than just slit our wrists.” Burr cringed angrily at the comment.

Hector felt uneasy. “Look, everyone, if we don't know how to get to the Jabberwock, I guess it really doesn't matter which path we take. So let's please not fight, and just pick a trail.”

“Whatever,” Aric groaned. He pointed lazily at Lilly, then stuffed his hands in his pockets. “All right, miss Guide, I hereby dub you the official Picker of the Random Path To Take.”

Lilly glared at him fiercely. “I really don't appreciate your attitude, Aric. Ever since we left Noosta you have been fighting with me and mocking me. We each have an important role to play, and I respect yours--”

“Respect? Can't handle taking correction, you mean.”

“I don't know why you bothered coming with us! You've never even explained where you came from, or how you got to Noosta--”

“That's none of your business! I'm on your side! I saved your life, didn't I?”

“Yes, and you've reminded us plenty of times!”

“What in the world have I done to offend you so badly? You're the control freak!”

“Control freak! I can't believe you are calling me a control freak!”

Hector watched in horror as Aric and Lilly started screaming at each other. In desperation he looked at Burr, but the Tove seemed as introspective and as solitary as ever, clutching his blood-caked arm tightly to his chest and averting his eyes. If we're driven apart, Hector realized, We'll never stop the Jabberwock, and the Mome Raths will win.

He planted himself between the bickering man and woman and pushed them apart. “Stop! Stop it, stop it! Can't you see you're both undermining the entire quest?”

“Nobody asked your opinion, bookworm,” Aric snapped with a scowl. Lilly didn't say anything, but her eyes smoldered and she was breathing heavily.

Hector let his arms drop to his sides. “Look, guys, it's hard, I know. We're all far from home, we're all lost and confused and hungry. We don't even really know each other all that well, and I don't think that helps us get along. But can we please at least have a truce until we can stop the Jabberwock and save the world? Isn't that more important?”

“Of course it's important,” Lilly said acidly. “That's why Aric needs to stop being so arrogant!”

“Oh, like you're one to talk,” Aric sneered.

“Stop it, Aric! Lilly, cut it out!”

Lilly huffed and suddenly stormed away, down one of the five dark paths. “Maybe splitting up was a good idea after all. I need ten minutes to myself,” she muttered.

“Feel free to take longer than that,” Aric called after her. He turned to Hector, and even though his face was twisted with anger, Hector thought he saw for just an instant a flicker of regret in Aric's eyes. “I'm going my own way, Hec. We'll meet back here as planned. You can go with Burr, or go by yourself, I really don't care. Just don't get yourself killed,” he added as he took off in the opposite direction that Lilly went. He quickly vanished into the twisting trail.

Hector was left alone with Burr in the startlingly tangible silence that followed. Hector clutched his chest with his hand and breathed slowly to slow his pounding heart, and after a few moments he sighed. “Wow. That's not good. Bad stuff always happens in stories when people split up in the woods. Best thing I've learned from reading all that Hinlandian folklore is that you should never travel alone, because everything tries to kill you.” He forced a laugh, and Burr nervously played along. “So, Burr,” he asked, taking a look around and inching closer to his companion. “Should we go together, or do you want to split up?”

“I go with you,” Burr said quickly, and Hector eagerly nodded.

“Good idea. Let's go this way.”

The two of them started walking down a pathway between the ones Lilly and Aric had chosen. They hadn't walked for more than two minutes before they came to another branching crossroads, seemingly identical to the first. They paused in the center, and Burr looked at Hector for guidance.

“Em,” Hector stalled, “I read a book once where two children were lost in the forest. In order to find their way out, wherever they went they left a trail of golden Imperial Sigils. That way they could always know which path they had already taken.”

Burr gave him a blank stare.

“Their father was filthy rich,” Hector explained. “Probably a close friend of the Duke's. A politician, I believe, as the story goes. Most expensive trail I've ever heard of. Anyway, I'm fresh out of Imperial Sigils, so I guess... well, we could either go back or keep going. What do you say?”

The Tove, dropping his wounded arm to his side, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He gazed around and gauged the options. Finally he pointed to one of the paths. “Let's go that way,” he said, and Hector shrugged his approval.

They began walking again, but the Tulgey Wood was so dark, so silent and so oppressively mysterious that Hector decided to strike up a conversation. “So, Burr... I had a question. Back there, when we were trying to get into the Wood, you said you were Aztlav, and that the forest 'knew the taste of your blood.' You seemed like you knew what you were doing, and the forest agreed with you and let us in. I was curious about how you knew just what to do. Did you learn about the Tulgey Wood in your own Borogrove? Is that an important part of your history as Aztlavs?”

Burr didn't respond for a long time. Hector hadn't really expected him to. But as they crossed a perpendicular path that cut through their own, Burr surprised him with his own question.

“Hector, you read lots of books. Yes?”

“Of course. I am a librarian.”

Then Burr's face turned profoundly solemn and sorrowful; it was an expression that Hector had never before seen on him. “In those books... have you ever read of... of princes?”

At any other moment the question might have seemed a bit silly, but the moment was quiet and serious. He had no idea why Burr would ask such a thing, but Hector could tell that he was speaking from the very depths of his heart, so he simply said:

“Yes, I have.”

“And in those stories... what were the princes like?”

“Oh, there were many types. But mostly they were noble and courageous.”

Burr pondered this for a moment, staring at his pawlike feet as they walked. Then he looked up, and his green eyes were full of concern. “But... was there ever one that didn't be noble and courageous?”

“Yes. Plenty of them, sadly.”

“Did any of them go back to being noble again?”

He pensively rubbed his journal's spine as he responded. “Yes. A few of them.”

Burr didn't say anything more for a while. The only sound was the dusty, shuffling sound their feet made as they made their way deeper into the forest. They found a few more crossroads – every single one exactly identical to the others – and took a path at random each time. Hector knew they were hopelessly lost, but for some reason he didn't seem to mind.

“Burr?” he finally asked.

Burr looked somberly at him.

“Are you a prince?”

“Yes,” said the Tove matter-of-factly.

Hector nodded in surprise and amazement. “Really! That's certainly... er... interesting. I wonder what it would be like to be a prince myself.”

Burr sadly shook his head and massaged his bandaged arm. “My father is... um... the word, I don't know in Humish...”

“King? Chief? Togom?”

“King, I think,” Burr shrugged. “Me and my brothers are princes...”

“So what were you doing so far from home when Aric found you?” Hector asked. “He found you scrounging for food in Thrimton, if I remember correctly. What happened? Were you banished?”

Burr looked confused. “Um... I don't know that word... but it is long story.”

“We have plenty of time. And besides, I like long stories.”

The brown Tove – so small of stature; the quiet, introspective young man with the prickly fur that so much resembled his name; whose eyes betrayed his unsettled feelings – began to tell his story.

“My father had five sons, all princes. And daughters, but daughters aren't princes. In Aztlav the princes are very important, because they will be kings and kings are important too.

“Many things are expected of the princes. We needed to be strong, and brave, and wise. I think that humans choose their kings being the oldest son, yes?”

Hector nodded. “Yes, the firstborn son is usually the next in line to be king.”

“Yes. With Aztlav it is different. There is many tests, things that you must do if you are prince, so that you make yourself good enough to be king. The strongest and bravest and wisest prince becomes the next king. So these tests are very important. My brothers and me, we taked the tests, the rituals, and many of us did good on them. In some of them we had to hunt beasts, and in some we had to cross the desert alone, and in some we had to say the right thing to solve a problem between two persons. My brother Sand failed the wise test of finding all the blue stones, but he tell me, Burr you can do good, you are more strong and wise than me. Go do good on the tests and be king. I didn't really want to be king that much, but it was... a thing that had to be done. I had to take the tests. I couldn't not take them! What would father think?

“I had some friends I maked, some friends I played Galum with. I didn't play Galum very much in those times. Just sometimes. These friends wanted me to be king, because they thinked I was a good person to be king. But I still didn't really want to be king. But also there was... I had another friend...”

Burr paused for a moment. When he spoke again his voice sounded constricted with emotion. “I had another friend. Her name is Fire. Fire was my good friend. Like... a very good friend to me...”

“Like Lilly and River?” Hector suggested.

“No,” Burr choked, barely containing a sob. Hector had never seen him so emotional. “No, no, not like that... almost like that... I liked her very much, she knowed I liked her, but I never telled her with words, not out loud...” He stopped walking and breathed, then grit his teeth, again striding forward, and continued in a rough voice. “She was from another family, not the king-family, but they were friends to us. Many times had our family married from her family, so it would not have been strange for me to ask for Fire's heart...”

Hector knew better than to write this down in his journal. He listened intently.

“Fire told me I could be a good king. She said I could make lots of changes for good – things were bad in the tribe in those times, and many old ones said they feared that the Aztlav would destroy themselves in war with each other – and she helped me be wise and brave. She teached me many things about myself, how to be good and how to help other people. Most of all, she helped me be strong, even though I had not found my Gyre yet. A king's Gyre should be strong, so he can defend his tribe. Almost all my brothers had found their Gyres but I had not. My brother Thorn had not either, but he was strong and the people liked him.

“There was one more test, and I had passed all the others. Thorn did too. So in this last trial, we had to fight each other... I think the word is wrestle. We had to wrestle, and the loser had to lose something very important, and give it to the other. It had to be something very, very important, for a king has to fight to protect his kingdom, and he must not lose it. Father knew what was important to Thorn: it was his honor. If he lost to me I would be esteemed greater than him, and this would have crushed my brother with grief. But my father also knew what was important to me... If I lost to Thorn, then Thorn would marry Fire.”

Hector's skin tingled with mutual horror. Burr's voice was raspy and and he cleared his throat too often as he struggled to speak.

“We wrestled. We were equal matches, and neither of us wanted to lose what we wanted most. As we neared the end of the trial, we were both very tired. I looked into Thorn's eyes, and I saw in him... I, I saw that he was... he was...”

“Angry? Afflicted? Desperate?”

“He was very desperate,” Burr agreed. He cleared his throat again. “I knew that his honor was important to him. It is very important to every Aztlav, but especially to Thorn. I realized that he would never stop fighting, that he would fight until his body died before giving up his honor. It... hurt me to see my brother so angry and so desperate. And so I faltered for a moment, on purpose, and he won.

“Thorn was declared the next king. He kept his honor. Arrangements were made for him to marry Fire. I did not think too much of it then, because I did not want to. The marriage, I mean. After the wrestle, my father telled me that he knowed I let Thorn win. He was very angry with me. That is not what a king does, he telled me. A king does not give up. Now Thorn will think his strength winned for him, when it was only his foe being weak on purpose. He said it with much anger. It was a lot for me to think, and I said that I didn't want to be king anyway, and I fled.

“I went to my friends, who played Galum. I stayed with them for much time, some months, I think. I don't remember how much time; I just wanted to play the game so I would forget the fight, and my father, and being prince and losing Fire. I played a lot. In Galum they don't care if you are prince. They don't care what you look like, or how you talk, or where you're from. They just care about the game. So I spent a much time there.

“One day a message-man came from my father, saying for me to come to the king-making of my brother. I did not want to go. Your father knowed you did not want to go, said the message-man. But your father say that you should go for to see Thorn, he is your brother, so I decided to go, but only to see him there. It was another thing I just had to do, but I did not want to.

“In the kinging-place, I saw Thorn and Sand and my brothers and sisters and Fire's family. Then I saw Thorn in the kinging-place, and... and there was Fire.

“She looked at me. She was wearing the marrying-clothes, and she looked at me and looked very strange, like she was very sad. She was very beautiful and very sad. In that moment I realized what I had lost in the wrestle. I knew that I could live without being king, without being prince, without playing Galum, or without eating or drinking or sleeping but I could not live without Fire. So I ran away.”

With those four words, Burr summed up the rest of the world's history until the present day. He and Hector walked through the semi-darkness and eerie silence of the Tulgey Wood, but Hector couldn't focus on his surroundings; Burr's words blazed in his mind and made his limbs tremble with emotion. How hard it must have been for this young man, he thought, stealing a glance at the Tove with his head hung low and his ears and tail drooping as though they had lead weights tied to them. To have lost something even more important than honor and royalty and family. His best friend...

“And then Aric found you far away from home,” Hector concluded. Burr, slogging along, made no move to reply. “So you didn't leave because your Borogrove was all mimsy, like you said. It's okay, I understand why you didn't want to talk about it at first. Well, I think you're here for a reason. You are destined to help destroy the Jabberwock. I'd say that's the most important test of bravery, strength and wisdom there ever was. Fire would be proud of you. I'm sure of it.”

Burr remained silent.

As they reached the umpteenth crossroads, Hector stopped and put his hands on his hips. “Well, this is just frustrating, just downright frustrating, I say. I feel like we're walking in circles. Sooner or later we've got to figure out what to do or where to go, and I'm getting hungry.”

“Maybe I can help with that,” said a familiar voice. Hector and Burr turned around.

(Graphic 5.6: Hector and Burr see River appear behind them. He is smiling confidently.)